BELGIUM / LEBANON: EU's Foreign Policy Chief Solana suggests Iran behind Gaza and Lebanon attacks

Record ID: 353372

  • Title: BELGIUM / LEBANON: EU's Foreign Policy Chief Solana suggests Iran behind Gaza and Lebanon attacks
  • Date: 3rd July 2007
  • Summary: (W4) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (JULY 2, 2007) (REUTERS) POSTER SHOWING 'MOVING TOWARDS AN INTERNATIONAL PEACE CONFERENCE' (English) INSIDE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF JAVIER SOLANA HUGGING FORMER EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER AHMED MAHER AND SHAKING HANDS WITH ALON LIEL, ISRAELI TRYING TO WRITE UP A PEACE PLAN BETWEEN SYRIA AND ISRAEL PEOPLE LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (Eng
  • Embargoed: 18th July 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,European Union
  • Reuters ID: LVAAZPGPTWJLKGK98JV1MPFZD2N0
  • Story Text: The European Union foreign policy chief suggested on Monday (July 2) that Iran could be linked to the Hamas military takeover of Gaza, recent attacks on the Lebanese army and on European peacekeepers in Lebanon.
    Speaking in Brussels at the European parliament during Middle East peace conference organised by the Socialist group Javier Solana stopped short of blaming Tehran outright.
    Solana has for months led efforts to bring Iran back to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme and has also visited Lebanon and met with Palestinians regularly.
    But he stressed that ongoing attacks could not be treated separately.
    "I think that what has taken place in the last period of time cannot be seen as something that happens by chance and we have to recognise that if we are going to have an intelligent approach to what has taken place in Gaza cannot be taken or separated from what has taken in the last period of time in Lebanon. The fact that new groups have been acting in the Palestinian camps, starting from the north and the south, the fact that even UNIFIL, United Nations force has been attacked for the first time, is something that cannot be taken separately from what has taken place in Gaza. I want to underline that. If we want to have a real approach to the moment we are living vis a vis the Middle East we cannot close our eyes to that fact. There are forces, which may be in other countries, in Syria, in Iran in others.. there is no doubt that something of that nature is taking place," Solana said.
    Solana said that while the car bomb attack that killed six Spanish members of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on June 24 was carried out by "forces we don't know", he added: "It would be naive not to see this as part of a global approach."
    Referring to the chief Iranian nuclear negotiator, Solana said: "If you read Newsweek of last week you will find someone I know very well, Ali Larijani, making a statement that are very clear: we have supported Hamas this is not something that has to be taken under the table. This is clearly stated in the Newsweek of last week," Solana said.
    Solana also said a postponed meeting of Western and Arab Middle East mediators with Israeli and Palestinian leaders would probably now happen in Cairo in mid-July.
    He said it was crucial not to abandon the Palestinians with both financial as well as political aid and urged once more Mahmoud Abbas to resolve the political crisis to take full advantage of international aid.
    Solana said the EU as well as the Arab nations had failed the Palestinians.
    "The government of President Abbas is an emergency government and therefore it is not an everlasting government. It has a period in which they can operate and it is very important that the international community now address fundamentally the Europeans and the Arabs that we don't fall in the same trap as before: we did too little and we did it too late. I think we have to change our approach. We cannot do it as little and we cannot do it as late as we did and that is valid for us, and we recognise that as Europeans, but its valid also for the Arab countries and probably they have not done enough and they have not done it at the right pace," he said.
    Solana said it was important to provide a new political impetus to the peace process, not just financial and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian government.
    Solana also said that in the long run it would be necessary to have an international peacekeeping presence in the West Bank and Gaza, but this was not an immediate priority.
    On June 24, two Spanish and three Colombian peacekeepers died in the first deadly attack on the United Nations force since last year's Israel-Hezbollah war.
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